Final answer:
The statement that the moment of inertia of a uniform thin disk can be written as MR2 is true. This is a commonly accepted formula in physics for the moment of inertia about an axis through the center of a uniform thin disk.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine whether the statement that the moment of inertia of a disk can be written simply as MR2 is true or false, consider the context provided by the laboratory manual and textbook. Moment of inertia is a measure of an object's resistance to change in its rotational motion and depends on the mass of the object and the distribution of that mass relative to the axis of rotation.
In the case of a uniform thin disk rotating about an axis through its center, as in Figure 10.27, the moment of inertia is indeed MR2, where M is the mass of the disk and R is its radius. This is a commonly understood result in physics for such an object. The figure numbers and the variations of the formulas mentioned (1-MR2 vs MR2) seem to be typographical errors, as the correct formula does not contain a subtraction. The moment of inertia for a solid disc is widely acknowledged in physics to be MR2 without any subtractions or coefficient other than 1.For compound objects such as a disk at the end of a rod as indicated in Figure 10.28, the parallel-axis theorem is used to determine the moment of inertia of the combined system, taking into account both the moment about the center of mass and the contribution due to the offset (d2) of the axis of rotation.